In Memoriam

There was a shooting at a church in the greater metro area today. The shooter killed the pastor during his sermon. I cannot even remotely fathom the fear and depth of grief of the people. My heart goes out to the family and members of that congregation.
There will be much said over the next few days regarding church and forgiveness. There will be much speculation over motive and why. It will bring up the questions of why bad things happen to good people and why someone would want to kill a pastor and what about evil. There will be discussions over the man's sanity. There will be debates over whether he was did such a thing because of something in his past that he became that way or not.
My sympathy goes out to the people who will be in the middle of this investigation.
The main thing to remember is that no matter what happens in this world, it is still Christ's church and He knows His own.

Public Notice of Religious Events

The Saturday Post-Dispatch always has a religion section, and in this religion section is a listing of events for the week. Some highlights:
Today: Lead Now!—a workshop for leading 20 and 30-somethings with “innovative ideas”. Sad to say, this is being sponsored by an LCMS congregation.
Tomorrow: a spiritual growth class which talks about how a cup can be an image of prayer.
If you don’t like cups, try the “Jazz Vespers”. I guess the polka masses are only in Minnesota.
If neither of those sounds interesting enough for you, there’s the seminar on “troublesome Biblical texts”; at which they will discuss how disturbing texts in the Bible (those which deal with violence, gender bias, etc.) can be revelation.
On Tuesday there is a discussion on Biblical and contemporary ideas of violence.
One might want to check out the presentation on “Secret Rosicrucian Symbols of the 16th and 17th centuries on Thursday at the Rosicrucian Lodge.
The “Dances of Universal Peace” sounds like an event not-to-be missed. There is even an opportunity for audience involvement to join in on dances from “many different spiritual traditions. . .”
I suppose some of these are very good, theologically hard-hitting discussions. Then again, some of them seem like bait-and-switch. Maybe I’m just a cynic. Who cares how they come in, as long as they come in, right?
I’m thinking that maybe I’ll just head on down to the Tap Room on Monday for the Aquinas Institute of Theology’s event: Theology on Tap. After reading these notices, I might head on down before Monday. . .